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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Yes We Can

This is an amazing music video, maybe the best use of celebrity talent I've ever seen employed in a campaign. Obama's rhetoric does have a poetic quality to it, and putting it to music is just natural. Add in the viral nature of putting the song on the Internet, and the bold call for social justice and the desire to become our better selves, and I think it's just a real gem. It also adds to the generational, creative class nature of the Obama campaign that we're seeing in recent days.

Here's a story about the making of the song:

The Black Eyed Peas' frontman, songwriter and producer known as will.i.am, along with director and filmmaker Jesse Dylan, son of another socially active musician, Bob Dylan, released a new song Friday that attempts to do just that.

The music video "Yes We Can" premiered on ABCNewsNow's "What's the Buzz" on Friday. It was inspired, will.i.am told ABC's Alisha Davis, by Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign and in particular by the speech he has gave after the New Hampshire primary.

"It made me reflect on the freedoms I have, going to school where I went to school, and the people that came before Obama like Martin Luther King, presidents like Abraham Lincoln that paved the way for me to be sitting here on ABCNews and making a song from Obama's speech," will.i.am said.

"The speech was inspiring about making change in America and I believe what it says and I hope everybody votes," Dylan said.


It's pretty special. I don't know that the country can be collectively inspired by a particular anymore, there are simply too many media choices these days. But this is one way to gather interest in civic engagement that is completely outside the box.

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